Sun shines on energy-efficient home in Edmonton

Net-zero house produces as muc henergy as it consumes, say builders

This eco-friendly home in Edmonton was built by Effect Home Builders. It's a 1,540 squarefoot bungalow that runs mainly on solar energy. The home does not use any natural gas.

Photograph by: John Lucas
, Edmonton Journal

What if you could harness the power of the sun to heat and light your home?

That’s exactly what’s happening at a house in Edmonton’s Belgravia neighbourhood.

The 1,540 square-foot bungalow, a show home by Effect Home Builders, runs mainly on solar electricity.

The house is not connected to the natural gas line and only occasionally draws from the electric grid.

It is one of three net-zero homes — dwellings that produce as much energy as they consume — that Effect has built in the community near the University of Alberta.

“It has enough solar modules on it to produce as much energy as it consumes over the course of a year,” says Les Wold, who owns Effect with partners Dale Rott and Dave Brettelle.

The solar modules Wolds speaks of are a bank of south-facing photovoltaic panels on the home’s roof. They capture the sun’s energy and use it to power the heating system, the lights and the appliances, as well as heat the dwelling’s water.

“There’s only electricity in this house, there’s no gas,” says Wold.

In summer, the house produces more electricity than it needs.

“There’s a special meter on it that basically rolls backward and credits for that electricity that it’s generating on its own,” says Wold.

And it continues to produce solar power even in the dark days of winter, says Wold.

“The solar modules actually produce even on cloudy days. They produce not at full level, but they’re still producing.”

The show home will give people a chance to see that there’s much more to the house than solar panels, says Wold.

Concrete floors on the main level absorb the sun’s rays, helping to heat the home.

“Analysis shows that the sun’s energy (absorbed into the floors) is enough to fulfil up to 30 per cent of the heating needs for the home,” says Wold.

The show home’s foundation is insulated to R-40. Twelve-inch walls made of engineered wood and expanded polystyrene provide an insulation value of R-48.

The Canadian Home Builders Association — Edmonton Region puts the standard insulation value for a conventionally built wood-frame house at R-20.

“It is well over double insulation,” Wold says.

Effect has been named as a finalist for an environmental recognition award from the home builders association and is also a finalist in the association’s single-family home category for design and esthetics.

The builders pride themselves on creating homes that are as stylish as they are functional.

In the show home, sunlight pours through an entire wall of south-facing windows, flooding the open-concept living and dining areas.

The concrete floors, which help heat the home, are patterned and polished to look like coloured granite.

The main level has a full bathroom and two bedrooms, one with ensuite. A mud room at the rear leads out to a two-car garage. The basement is fully developed with two more bedrooms, a family room, den, full bathroom, laundry room and a huge storage area.

On the main level, a wood staircase leads to a rooftop deck, which overlooks a school and green space across the street.

“It’s a really usable space,” says Wold. “You can be sitting there sipping your coffee while watching children play.”

Wold maintains that an energy-efficient house is not out of the reach of average homebuyers.

“There is no one way to build an energy-efficient home — there are multiple ways to approach it,” Wold says.

Something as simple as which way a house is positioned on a lot makes a big difference, he says.

“They (houses) can be designed so that they’re facing the sun and they’re capturing free energy from the sun.”

If there’s no money for solar modules at the time of construction, putting in a conduit from a south-facing roof down to the mechanical room will make it easy to add them later, he says.

“Then, as the price of solar panels decreases and the efficiency increases, when it fits the budget, that cost can be incurred. It doesn’t have to be an upfront cost.”

A well-insulated house will also pay off in the long run, he says.

“Having a more advanced wall, a more efficient, well-insulated and airtight building envelope, are key.

“They cost incrementally more but it’s not outrageous and really over time just in your energy bills alone, you can recoup that.”

For more information on Effect Home Builders, visit the website at effecthomes.ca.